Thieves target bike recycling scheme - and chuck bikes at cars

Thieves who have repeatedly stolen bikes from a social enterprise in Scotland are being investigated by police.

Angus Cycle Hub says a number of bikes have been taken, and in the most recent incident, one was thrown at a car, causing damage.

The bikes are kept in a skip inside a locked fence, and despite newly installed CCTV, the thieves have not been deterred.

James Beattie, cycling development officer with the project, told the Evening Telegraph: “It’s something that has caused us concern for quite a while.

“We have had various instances of people stealing bikes or parts of bikes from the skip outside our premises.

“We have tried various things to prevent this, but so far nothing seems to have worked.

“We have tried locking the skip behind a fence, covering it up and we have also installed CCTV, but nothing seems to stop people who are determined to steal from us.”

The bikes were in a queue to be refurbished and given to young people.

He added: “About a third of what we are given we can refurbish for use, another third is used for spare parts and finally, the last lot ends up having to go in the skip because, for various reasons, they can’t be used by us — and it’s these bikes that are often taken.”

Online, the Hub explains: “We love the feeling we get when we refurbish a bike, however we understand that every bike we collect can’t be fixed and sometimes they truly have reached the end of the road.

“When this is the case, we strip the bike down to the frame, and rid it of any decent parts (if any).

“Following this, we get our bikes collected by a local recycling company in Dundee who crush them and recycle them further. All proceeds from this go back into our project, enabling us to fund our expansion and further community development projects.”

A female driver who was passing was hit by a bike that was thrown on Sunday.

She wrote online: “The matter has been reported to police. Unfortunately, I will have to pay for the damage myself, as my car was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“However, I don’t want the pair getting away with this and likely doing the same sort of thing in the future. They seem to have no understanding of the consequences of their actions.”

James confirmed the matter had been reported to police and added: “We have given police our CCTV coverage of this, so hopefully it will lead to someone being caught.

“This was upsetting for the lady and for us, as we don’t want to be getting a bad name locally because of these thefts, one of which has led to vandalism.”